Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety apparatus of an accelerator pedal for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a safety apparatus of an accelerator pedal for a vehicle, the apparatus being capable of preventing the accelerator pedal from being operated, in a mal-operation where both a brake pedal and the accelerator pedal are operated in a vehicle braking condition.
Description of Related Art
An accelerator pedal for accelerating a vehicle and a brake pedal for braking the vehicle are installed at foot level in front of the vehicle. The accelerator pedal and the brake pedal are configured to be operated by a driver's foot.
The accelerator pedal and the brake pedal are operated depending on a driver's feeling or habit, in a situation where the driver cannot see the pedals with his or her eyes while a vehicle is running. Accordingly, in the case of an inexperienced driver or in an emergency situation, the driver may frequently confuse the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal and thereby may perform rapid acceleration instead of a braking operation in a situation where it is required to brake the vehicle, thus undesirably causing an accident.
In order to prevent the mal-operation of the accelerator pedal, technology has been proposed in which a cover separately made of a metal material is laid on a pad of the accelerator pedal operated by a driver's foot and a feeling different from the brake pedal is provided to the driver when he or she operates the pad, thus preventing the mal-operation.
However, in the case of simply laying the metal cover on the pad of the accelerator pedal, a driver may not determine the difference between the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal due to his or her shoes. In this case, the driver may still mal-operate the accelerator pedal, i.e., wrongly operate the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal.
As another example, technology is being developed, in which a camera sensor and an electronic controller are employed to cause an operation of the accelerator pedal to be forcibly stopped when the accelerator pedal is mal-operated in a situation where a braking operation is required. However, such a technology is problematic in that it has a complicated structure and is expensive, so that it is difficult to apply the technology to an inexpensive diffusion-type vehicle.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.